If you want to save the contents of the Mac OS X clipboard, or just don't want to bother with it at all, you don't have to. You can just drag text (or, presumably, any other media) from one app to another using the dock or even the app switcher.

As you can see above, dragging a link out of TextEdit and onto Firefox's icon results in Firefox loading the page automatically. This is a bit quicker than copying and pasting the link. You can also drag text from a web site onto TextEdit's icon and it'll create a new document with that text. The same should go for any other kind of media, letting you transport it around as you please without the aid of the clipboard. Just use the dock or bring up OS X's app switcher (Command+Tab) and drag away.